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APS Will Add 850 MW of Battery Storage to Solar Plants

February 23, 2019

Arizona’s largest utility wants to support its renewable power portfolio by adding as much as 850 MW of battery storage capacity to its solar power plants by 2025.

Arizona Public Service Co. (APS) made the announcement February 21. Don Brandt, the utility’s chairman and CEO, in a statement said, “Arizona is already a national leader in solar energy. The challenge is, no one has figured out how to stop the sun from setting at night. As storage technology improves and declines in cost, we will increasingly be able to store the power of the sun cost-effectively to deliver when our customers need it.”

The plan includes installing batteries at existing solar facilities, and at future sites. APS would not talk about the cost of the program, citing confidentiality agreements, but said it would build at least 100 MW of new solar capacity by 2025. Analysts have said the utility currently generates about 14% of its power from renewable sources.

The U.S.…

Community Solar Power Offers the ‘Best of Both Worlds’ [PODCAST]

January 28, 2019

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Laura Stern, co-founder and president of Nautilus Solar Energy, was a guest on The POWER Podcast. Founded in 2006, Nautilus is a leading acquirer, developer, and operator of community solar projects. During the past five months, the company has acquired community solar projects in Minnesota, Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, and Rhode Island.

Community solar refers to local solar facilities shared by multiple community subscribers who receive credit on their electricity bills for their share of the power produced. This solar power model is being rapidly adopted throughout the U.S. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association—the national trade association of the U.S. solar energy industry—there was 1,294 MW of installed community solar capacity at the end of June 2018, with at least one community solar project online in 42 states. Furthermore, the group says the market will add as much as 3 GW over the next several years.

Community solar allows homeowners, renters, and businesses to have equal access to the economic and environmental benefits of solar energy generation regardless of the physical attributes or ownership of their homes or businesses.…

Large Solar Projects Come Online in Hawaii, Florida

January 12, 2019

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Two large solar power projects—located more than 4,600 miles apart—recently came online in the U.S., providing service in Florida and Hawaii.

Duke Energy on Jan. 8 announced its 74.9-MW Hamilton Solar Power Plant was online. The installation in Jasper, Fla., is part of the company’s plan to build or acquire at least 700 MW of solar power in the state by year-end 2022.

On the same day, the Lawai Solar and Energy Storage Project in Lihue, Hawaii, was commissioned by the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC). The facility began operating in December 2018. The project from AES Corp. is considered the world’s largest battery energy storage system (BESS) paired with solar generation. It combines 28 MW of solar photovoltaic generation capacity across a 150-acre site with a lithium-ion BESS of up to 100 MWh capacity.

The BESS is notable because it holds more energy than all but one other U.S. installation, a 120-MWh facility built by AES in Escondido, Calif., in 2017.…

Net Metering and Time-Variant Rates Drive Solar Power and Energy Storage Growth [PODCAST]

April 29, 2018

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Nevada law has included net metering provisions for more than 20 years. Net metering is an arrangement that allows energy generated by a customer’s leased or purchased solar system to offset monthly power bills. It also permits excess energy supplied to the grid to earn credits, which are then automatically applied to future billing periods in which more energy is consumed than produced.

Historically, net metering was a one-for-one transaction in Nevada. For every kWh supplied to the grid, a credit was given to the customer for one kWh in the future. The scheme changed in 2015 when the Nevada Public Utilities Commission (PUC) created a laddered approach that ratcheted down the value of customer-generated energy over a period of years to about 2¢/kWh, which was much less than the retail rate of about 11¢/kWh. The change effectively stopped all construction on new residential rooftop solar systems.

Through Assembly Bill 405 (AB 405), the Nevada Legislature modified the net metering rate structure effective June 15, 2017.…

U.S Solar Installations Dip Amid Uncertainty

March 16, 2018

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Burdened by a trade case, unpredictable policy-making, interconnection delays, and other market factors, the U.S. installed 30% less solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity in 2017 compared to a record-breaking 2016.

However, the 10.6 GW of new PV capacity added last year represents 30% of all new generating capacity added to the U.S. grid, more than any other power source but natural gas, and according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), it is characteristic of solar PV’s booming growth. Last year’s capacity addition still represents 40% growth over 2015’s installation total, the trade group noted as it released its U.S. Solar Market Insight Report 2017 Year-in-Review, which it prepared with GTM Research, on March 15.

“The solar industry delivered impressively last year despite a trade case and market adjustments,” said SEIA President and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper. “Especially encouraging is the increasing geographic diversity in states deploying solar, from the Southeast to the Midwest, that led to a double-digit increase in total capacity.”…

FPL Will Build New Gas Plant, Adds More Solar

March 5, 2018

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Florida regulators on March 1 approved Florida Power & Light’s (FPL’s) plan to build a new $ 888 million natural gas-fired power plant, replacing an existing gas- and oil-fueled plant on the same site in Dania Beach that is being retired this year. The utility on Thursday also announced the opening of four new solar power plants in Florida, joining four others that FPL opened in January of this year.

The Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) supported FPL’s plan for the new 1,163-MW Dania Beach Clean Energy Center. The PSC said reusing infrastructure from the existing Lauderdale plant at the site was the most cost-effective way to lower emissions and meet rising demand for electricity in the region. The new facility will use the same gas infrastructure, substation, and transmission lines as the existing plant, and emissions will be 95% lower for nitrogen oxide and 22% lower for carbon dioxide, according to the PSC. Water used by the plant will drop by more than 1 million gallons a day, the PSC said.…